Prabhupada's lecture - Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.15.31 - Los Angeles, December 9, 1973
So to commit mistake, to get into illusion, overpowered by illusion, and cheating. Cheating means you have made mistake, "two plus two equal to five." "Yes," you're persisting, "Yes, it is right." That is cheating. Everyone in this material world, they're born foolish and still they're manufacturing knowledge. That is cheating. That is going on. The so-called scientists, so-called philosophers, their basic principle is wrong, and they're presenting some theories and that is being accepted by people. That is cheating.
For example, just like the insistence of the scientists that "Life is production of matter." They have no experience, neither they can make any experiment in the laboratory that from matter one can produce life. But every child knows that "My father is life and my mother is life, so I am produced from that combination. I am also life." So life comes from life. The dead body of father, the dead body of mother cannot produce. Any man can understand. Very simple. But these rascals, so-called scientists, they're insisting that life is produced from matter. Insisting, simply. Their only idea is to prove that there is no God. Imitation.